Bar rolling up the back

[AColeman]

Hi Mike and Tom,

I noticed today during my squats that the bar is rolling up my back and as a consequence those reps are real grinders.

I searched through the book but couldn’t find the cause of this. I suppose it could be a reader error. What causes this?

Al

[Tom Campitelli]

It is usually the result of rounding the upper back, although more than one thing can cause that. As you grind, there can be a tendency to lift the elbows or to get more horizontal. This can also be coupled with the bar moving forward of the midfoot a little. It happens fairly frequently at limit weights. I have experienced it and it happens on almost all of Feigenbaum's reasonably heavy squats. You are not alone in this. The cues that can potentially help are to keep your shoulder blades pinched back behind you and to try and keep your arms out of the lift. The more you push or pull on the bar with your hands in the squat, the more you run the risk of the bar moving. This should get you started.

[AColeman]

It is usually the result of rounding the upper back, although more than one thing can cause that. As you grind, there can be a tendency to lift the elbows or to get more horizontal. This can also be coupled with the bar moving forward of the midfoot a little. It happens fairly frequently at limit weights. I have experienced it and it happens on almost all of Feigenbaum's reasonably heavy squats. You are not alone in this. The cues that can potentially help are to keep your shoulder blades pinched back behind you and to try and keep your arms out of the lift. The more you push or pull on the bar with your hands in the squat, the more you run the risk of the bar moving. This should get you started.

Thanks Tom. I usually feel it roll at the bottom.

I’ll try keeping my shoulder blades squeezed together better.

[Tom Campitelli]

People sometimes round their backs a little as they get near the bottom of the squat. This may help, too:

Identifying and Correcting Thoracic Spinal Flexion in the Squat | Bill Hannon

[Dalton Clark]

Two cents from someone who had thoracic rounding at the bottom of the squat (as well as many other issues that an SSC has fixed), check where you are looking and where your head is pointing. If you're looking between your feet, your back is probably going to round.

[CKehoe]

People sometimes round their backs a little as they get near the bottom of the squat. This may help, too:

Identifying and Correcting Thoracic Spinal Flexion in the Squat | Bill Hannon

That article is gold. I was the photo on the right when things got heavy, with the corresponding shift to the toes. Paul Horn had me shift my eye gaze up, which helped in the past. It's a cue I return to when this starts creeping in. I've also found that Baraki's cue to keep your elbows tighter to your sides helps counter the elbow lift that just seems to happen when shit gets relatively heavy.

[AColeman]

People sometimes round their backs a little as they get near the bottom of the squat. This may help, too:

Identifying and Correcting Thoracic Spinal Flexion in the Squat | Bill Hannon

Tom,

Thanks for the article. After reading this I realized that I’ve been looking down a bit much.

[jbackos]

A common misunderstanding of the SS squat. Don’t make an effort to look down. Just keep the head and cervical spine neutral and let the eyes focus wherever is natural. The focus point will vary based upon back angle due to anthropometry.

[Royce Nichols]

Had some real bad rounding in the bottom, too. I got a mechanical question. Well hopefully just a clarification.

I know y’all have a problem with people being too vertical with their back angle so you tell them to bend over. Should the bending over come from the hips hinging backwards, or is it ok to have a little bend from the torso? I noticed this the other day that I may have been bending from the torso instead of just the hips and keeping my torso ‘rigid’. Sorry if this confuses anybody but I feel your pain and thought I might chime in!

[Tom Campitelli]

You don't want your spine to flex. You do want your hips and knees to flex, however.